SPEAKER COLFAX,

AND

C|e Snion %m^xit €mmittu.

WITH THE

LETTER OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN,

TO

A. G. HODGES, OF KENTUCKY.

WASHINaTON :

PRINTED AT THE OFFICE OF THE DAILY CHRONICLE, 456 NINTH STREET.

1864.

SPEAKER COLFAX,

AND

ao

V.V

\i

WITH THE

LETTER OF PRESIDENT^ LINCOLN,

TO

A. G. HODGES, OF KENTUCKY.

WASHINGTOX:

'Ill^-TEJ) .\T THE OFFICE OP THE DAILY CHRONICLE, 4.5i> XIMTII !<TKEE'J

18(U.

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in 2010 with funding from

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8PEAKEK ("OLFAX AND THE UNION LEAGUE

COMMITTEE.

A Co:s[inTTEE of the Union League, Potomac Council — Hon. J). 1*.
Holloway, President — consisting of Messrs. Lewis, Cook, Foster, Wood
and Etter, waited on Speaker Colfax, witli resolutions unanimously
adopted by tlie Council, approving tlie course taken by him in reference
to the treasonable utterances of Alexander Long, M. C, of Ohio.

Mr. Lewis, Chairman of the Committee, tendered the resolutions with
remarks Avell suited to the occasion. He said:

Mr. Speaker: — We come to convey to you resolutions approving of
your course in moving to expel from the House of Eepresentatives Mr.
Long, of Ohio, for his treasonable language and conduct; and to say to
you, our approval was unanimous, and even more ardent than is ex-
pressed m the resolutions. Wc only regret that there were not a con-
stitutional number like-minded to have fully accomplished the work.
We have to complain not only of the treason of these sympathizers
with rebellion, but that they are continuall}' .raising false issues tt)
deceive, and thus try to regain the power and influence they have lost.
Hence, they clamor for "free speech,"' and pretend to be advocates for
"constitutional liberty," keeping out of sight the fact that free speech
ends where wrong speecli begins. Words arc the best index of the
heart. If there Vi'ero no treason Avithin, there Avould loe none on the
tongue.

"Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Eternal
truth has decided the question. . Wrong speech can no more be tolera-
ted than Avrong action. "By thy word thou slialt be condemned," and
"by thy words thou shalt be justified."' "Out of thine own mouth will
I judge thee."' We have had enough of such free speech, and it must
be stopped. Davis, Toombs & Co. were also great advocates of free
speech, and it soon culminated in &ee stealing-, free robbing, freebooting,
and free murder ; and such will alwaj^s be the result if wrong speech or
action be permitted ; it will soon overcome all right speech and right
action, and then, of course, there is an end to all true liberty.

It Las long been our boast — and justly — tliat ours was a freecouutrv:
but it is a country in Avhicli persons are free to do rigLt and not to do
■wrong either in word or deed.

The proposition of the gentleman — of separation — cannot be enter-
tained. None but base and wicked men could propose it, because we
are forever bound to (jaaraniec to every State a republican government;
and therefore can never sanction such a despotism as the rebels seek to
perpetuate; but if a majority could be base enough to consent, it would
only prove their ruin, as "there would be war all the days of Jeroboam/'
and forever after.

_ If we do not subdue the rebellion, it will subdue us. If with all the
rivers in rebeldom sealed ; and the whole coast girded as with lire, we
find the task no eas}^ one, what could we do if we were to allow them
to fill their rivers, and surround (he coast with Merrimacs, Floridas,
rams, and torpedos ; there can be but one result, and the sooner this is
understood and acted npon, the better.

No treaties can ever be made with them. Heaven never sanctioned,
nor did man ever devise a more sacred and just compact than that made
by our fathers; which they — without cause — have broken in every
particular, and proved by their atrocities, that they are worse than
savages.

Every means, to the last man and the last dollar, if need, must be
used to restore the triumph of law and true liberty, with God, justice,
and multitudes of true men on our side, we must succeed, and in this
good work we wish you and your compatriots Grod speed, and a full
share in our final, and we trust, glorious triumph.

Mr. Colfax replied, in substance as follows :

Gentlemen" : — Sincerely as I value the approval of my fello"\v-
citizens generall}'-, I value in the highest degree the testimonial you
present to-night, in the resolutions adopted by the Union League of
this city, of which you are a committee. Gratifjdng as they are as an
indication and endorsement of my recent course, by those who have
been witnesses of the act itself, they have a double value, when I con-
sider the nnconditional devotion to o-ur country's cause, of those
enrolled in 3^our organization. And to this is added the speech of your
chairman, whose ]')atriotism, theology, and logic, are so, harmoniously
blended.

The speech which elicited the resolution you endorse, seemed to me
an experiment, to ascertain what loyal people would bear in that direc-
tion ; to be followed up, if unrebuked, by public meetings all over the
country, echoing what had thus been declared as to the death and
destruction of our Rei)uT)]ic, and the recognition of the Traitor Con-

recleracy, under the very roof oi' the Capitol. Aud thougli the ste[) I
took might have been regarded as one of grave responsibility, as it
was ; yet as it seemed to be demanded by duty to the country, and the
country's defenders in the field, it "was taken unhesitatingly ; and your
hearty approval, as well as my own conscience, assures me that it was
right.

What would follow the abandonment of this struggle for the preser-
vation of the Union, and our consent that upon tlie ruins of the
destroyed republic, another government might be planted, and admitted
with our consent into the Famil}^ of jSTations, I need scarcely recapitu-
late. But most painful to the patriot's heart would be the reflection,
that the martyrs for the Union, who had died on so many battle-fields,
had died in vain ; aud that their sur\n[vors would return, not to be
welcomed with enthusiastic acclaim, as the saviours of the Union, but
trailing behind them their dishonored flag, abandoning forever to trai-
tors the large scope of the Confederacy won back to the Union by their
valor. They would go downcast and humiliated to their homes, not to
rejoice there ovei' their campaigns, but to lament for the rest of their
lives, that they ever went forth to the dangers of war at the call of a
country which had so basely abandoned its own sacred cause. Our
Revolutionar}' patriots, Avho dared all the perils ^f that era, to win for
us the nationality that our heroes seek now to preserve, could speak
with exultation and pride to child and grandchild, and friend, of their
sacrifices and privations so willingly suffered for the Union, and each
succeeding generation have added more and more glory to their
immortal fame. But with our soldiers called back b}^ a disgraceful
abandonment of our cause and country, no future honor would recom-
pense them for their sufi:erings. We cannot disgrace them. If we do,
posterity will curse us as unworthy of the Republic we thus ignomini-
ously surrendered.

We are told, it is true, of the great cost of this war and our enemies
seek to appal us by frightful figures of the magnitude of our ISTational
Debt. I know it will cost heavily to save the country ; but it "will cost
less to save it than to lose it. With its destruction comes endless
anarchy, and endless war ; a long border line, thousands of miles in
extent, and thousands of strifes on either side; a cordon of custom-
houses on the border; a standing army to guard the frontier we
concede ; still further division of the ruins of our country ; the right
to appeal from the ballot-box to the bullet, transplanted from Mexican
soil to ours, by our o"\vn consent ; until at last, after a geiieration of
anarchy and revolution, we fall under the yoke of some foreign despot,
who, either aided by our " estranged brethren," or not, tramples under
foot Avhat little semblance of liberty may be left. 'No, gentlemen, oui-

'•ountrv must be suvccl, at whatever cost. 11 it takes evevy dolljir ol'
the nation's wealth, we shall, if snccessful, be no poorer than our fathers
at the end of the revolutionarj' Avar. Indeed, throughout that struggle,
they were bankrupt in all but hope and courage, faith in the right and
devotion to liberty. And, for niyseli', I would not hesitate, it' our
country can certainly be saved, to sacrifice every dollar I possess.
Without it, but with a preserved country, I should be rich indeed.
With the countr}^ destroyed, and the reign of revolution following, let
Mexico answer as to whether pro] )erty is not as worthless as the (lov-
ernment that was powerless to prot(K't its own existence.

Nor can we surrender, except at .the voluntary sacrifice of all that
is honorable in nations and in men. li' wa allow the sword of treason
to sever the Eepublic, every friend of liberty in the world Avill turn
their backs on us with scorn and contempt. If we abandon the graves
of the loved and the lost, all over the sunny south, from Manassas and
Kichmond, across by Chicamauga and Vicksburg to Sabine Pass and
Gralveston, so that in all future time, you shall not drop a tear of affec-
tion on their hallowed resting-place, except by permits begged from
that incarnate traitor, Jefferson Davis, we arc not worthy of the brave
men who sleep there in their bloody shrouds. If we allow the flag of
disunion to float over, the grave of the Father of his Country, on your
own Potomac, the slow, unmoving finger of scorn, should be jjointed at
all of us while we live in the country "we have thus disgraced.

But it will not be. We will keep faith with the dead of the Eevolu-
tion. AA^c will follow the flao- 'of our lathers as the tribes of old did the
fiery pillar. We A^dll not yield the contest till every Malakofl' of treason
is reduced, and every suffering Lucknow of the South shall hear the
slogan of deliverance. And trusting in that Providence who was the
God of our fathers, we will look forward hopefully to His answer to the
prayers that ascend morning and evening, from a million hearthstones,
and which we can all join in to-night.

'•' GOD SAVE THE AMERICAN REPUBLIC."'

%tM of ;^rtsiJ)fnt Kncoln to %, d^. i^obgts, (!:sq.

Executive Mansiox, Wasiiingtox, April 4, 186-i.
A. O. Jiod;/ei:>, Esq., Frank fori, Ky.:

My Dear Sir: — You ask me to put iu writing the .sab.staiice of what
I verbally said the other day, iu jour preseuce, to Governor Bramlette
aud Senator Dixon. It was about as follows :

"I am naturallv auti-slaverv. If slaverv is not wrong, notlnug is
wrong, I cannot remember wlien I did not so think and feel. And
3^et I have never understood that the ]:)residenc3^ conferred upon me an
unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It
was in the oath I took, that I would to the best of my ability preserve,
protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not
take the office ^nthout taking the oath. jSs"or was it my view, that I
might take an oath to get power, and break the oath, in using the power.
I^imderstood, too. that, in ordinarv civil administration, this oath even
forbade me to practically indulge my primary, abstract judgment on the
moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times,
and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official
act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery.

'• I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution
to the best of rny abilit}" imposed upon me the duty of preserving, by
every indispensable mean.s. that Government — that Nation — of which
that Con,stitution Avas the organic law. Was it possible to lose the
Nation, and j^et preserve the Constitution '!

" V>Y general law, life and limb must loe protected ; }'et often a limb
must he amputated to save a life ; l3ut a life is never wisely given to save
a limb. I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, miglit become
laAvful, by becoming indispen.sable to the preser\ation of the Constitution
through the preservation of the Nation. Eight or wrong, I assumed
this ground, and now avow it. I conld not feel, that to the best of my
ability, I had ever tried to preserve the Constitution, if to save slavery,
or any minor matter, I should permit tlie wreck of {"Jovcrnment. Country
and Constitution, all together.

'•' When, early in the war, Gen. Fremont attempted military emanci-
pation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable
necessity. When, a little later. General Cameron, then Secretary of
War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did not
yet think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, General

8

liunler fiite]ii]:)teil military einaiicipaliou. J agaiu forbade it, because 1
(lid not Yct tiling the indispensable necessity had come.

■• When, in March, and May, and Jnly, 18(32, I made earnest uud suc-
cessive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated emancipation.
I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation, and
arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. The}'
declined the proposition; and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the
alternative of either surrenderiug the Union, and "with it tlie Constitu-
tion, or of laying sti'ong hand upon the colored element. J chose the
latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss: but of this I
was not entirely confident.

"More than a year of trial now shows no loss l)y it, in our foreign
relations, none in our home popular sentiment: none in our white
military force ; — no loss by it, anyho^\', or any where. On the contrary.
it sho^^'s a gain of cpiite a hundred and tldrty thousand soldiers, seamen
and laborers. These are jialpable facts, about which, as facts, there can
be no caviling. We have the men, and we could not have liad them
without the measure.

"And now, let any L'nion juan, who complains of the measure, test
liimself, l>y writing dr)-\vri in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion
by force of arms, and in the next tliat he is for taking these hundred and
thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where the}'
would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case
so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth.

I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In telling
this tale, I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to
have controlcd events, but confess plainly that events have controledme.
Now, a'u the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not
Avhat cither party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim
it. AThither it is tending seems plain. If God alone wills the removal
of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as }'0u of
the South, shall j^ay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial
history "will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and
goodness of God.

Yours, truly,

A. LINCOLN.

-?i . D-oo'i . i^S'^ . i^S-^^L

\